Funded by a $1.8 million grant from UM's Office of the Provost, The program will send up to 18 students to India for approximately eight weeks, where they will work on projects such as a language learning app for deaf students, a smartphone app for booking local train tickets, or an online human rights repository for an Indian legal collective.

The students will primarily be from the School of Information, but the self-organized teams of two to four individuals will be encouraged to recruit graduate students from other programs with necessary skill sets.

"Once the student groups choose their projects, we will work with each team so they will have a customized training program tailored to their projects," said Joyojeet Pal, assistant professor of information and the faculty lead in the program, in a prepared statement. "Before the students go to India, they would have already studied the problem for a few months."

Upon completion, students "will receive six academic credits for their work, fulfill the school's practical experience requirement, and be eligible for an additional credit if they choose to refine or develop their projects in the fall," according to a UM news release.

About the Author

Joshua Bolkan is the multimedia editor for Campus Technology and THE Journal. He can be reached at jbolkan@1105media.com.